Bourbon and White Chocolate S’mores Bars

Posted On July 1, 2013

I just want to start off by thanking all of you. Thank you so, so, so much for reading. In the past couple of months, I’ve received more emails and comments from you all as readers than I ever thought was possible for my little blog! I really can’t express how every single comment, every single email and every single Tweet has made me gush and blush. Words cannot express how much I love all of you right now. You make me want to write more and more.

That being said, I’m on a plane to Houston at the moment. My flight was delayed out of Washington for, like, 8 billion reasons, and I’m pretty sure my Houston-to-Los-Angeles flight took off an hour ago. I made a nice friend at the airport, and in typical airport grown-up fashion, we didn’t exchange names. We did, however, camp out on the floor in the middle of a packed terminal, chat about her two-year old son in Chicago, and commiserate about rude travelers. Thumbs up, assholes that block the gate exit when people are trying to deboard our plane. They’re almost as annoying as the tourists who try to get on a metro train before letting people out… during rush hour. I mean, come on… train etiquette is just like elevator etiquette.

But I digress.

Like always, travel gives me time to reflect on what I’m doing with my life.

Lately, I’ve discovered an involuntary urge to reconnect with a few friends that I had lost touch with over the past year or so.

It’s not such an out-of-touch concept – I’ve always focused on surrounding myself with the most amazing, inspiring people I can find (yes, friends IRL, I’m talking about you). But when you’re going through something like a job hunt, relationship transition, or whatever other significant thing might be happening in your life, sometimes you need to just be with people who understand you. So friends fall in and fall out, and you reconnect when you’re all ready.

Many of my reconnections have been because of relationship transitions. More specifically, more single ladies.

And, having been a single lady for far too long, I’ve lost touch with some concepts. I’ve been discouraged, over optimistic, really, I’ve just been all over the spectrum. I’ve been a stronghold advocate of having a healthy relationship with yourself above all else.

And guess what? I’ve been putting my marriage to my job waaaaay ahead of my relationship to myself. And even when I feel like I’m rocking all things career-related, I find myself doubting myself in almost every other relationship.

So when I was chatting up said girlfriends on recent man-related wins and woes, they introduced a pretty amazing strategy: if you feel any negativity for any reason, drop it. Immediately.

It was hard at first, because the crazy cat lady in me wanted to hold on to and overanalyze every little thing.

But this is a healthy challenge. Let go of any negativity. With all my yoga preaching, I’m ashamed I didn’t pick this up earlier.

And thus begins an amazing week with the family. I’ll be camping next week, so enjoy this cast-iron skillet recipe for white chocolate and bourbon smores.

Then, add in your flour and a pinch of salt — together, gradually. When perfectly mixed, use a wooden spoon to mix in your white chocolate chips and your mini marshmallows. Pour batter into a 9 or 10-inch cast iron skillet, and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Immediately remove from the heat, and let cook for at least one hour — the batter continues baking after you remove it from the oven.

When completely, cool, slice into bars with a very sharp knife, or serve to an entire table with a huge mound of ice cream.